


Normalcy

by horsepowerandlover



Series: Trepidation [2]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Bellow is very background, Corrupted Gems, Corruption, F/F, F/M, Grief/Mourning, Guilt, I did a lot of math for this, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Questions, Sorry Not Sorry, Suicide, Survivor Guilt, formatting on here is hell, merry crisis, so is the Pearlmethyst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-09
Updated: 2020-12-09
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:36:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27975248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/horsepowerandlover/pseuds/horsepowerandlover
Summary: A new war on Earth has begun,but how?Why?
Relationships: Amethyst/Pearl (Steven Universe), Blue Diamond/Yellow Diamond (Steven Universe), Connie Maheswaran & Steven Universe, Lapis Lazuli/Peridot (Steven Universe)
Series: Trepidation [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2103285
Comments: 4
Kudos: 10





	Normalcy

**Author's Note:**

  * For [A_total_nerdy_clod](https://archiveofourown.org/users/A_total_nerdy_clod/gifts).



> (This is the prequel to my main fic, Casualties, but you can read them in any order :) )

Steven’s healing powers had always been a mystery, but Pearl had never had the time to thoroughly question it until recently. However, when the time came, her first question was as follows, “If the creatures Steven brings back to life are not completely immortal, what does that mean for the uncorrupted gems?” Normally, this would not have been a problem—as they could just re-heal the gems once they became unstable—but there was no normality about this situation. You see, Steven, as well as Connie, had died almost a hundred years ago. Of course, they still had the fountain, which was useful in healing cracks and minor chips, but no healing fountain by itself could reverse corruption. It takes the four most powerful beings in the galaxy to counteract such a thing, and when only one of those souls remains, everything becomes that much more complicated.

It had been 160 years since peace had been made between homeworld and earth, all kindergartens had been shut down, and the fighting that had been going on sporadically for thousands of years finally ceased; gems of all kinds came together to live peacefully for the rest of their lives.

It had been 150 years since Steven and Connie wed. Gems from across the galaxy came to witness the pair become formally bonded, and the party on that day was one to remember; the air was consistently buzzing with confusion, merriment, and, of course, overwhelming joy for the newlyweds. Peridot and Lapis spent the day explaining to other gems that their “OTP” had become “canon” as well as spelling out what a wedding actually is.

It had been 147 years since Lapis and Peridot got hitched themselves—after realizing that there was no place they’d rather be for the rest of their lives than by each other’s sides. They got married on May 26, the anniversary of the day they first became barnmates. That day was a momentous occasion and marked the beginning of a whole flood of gem-to-gem marriages, it having been a concept that no one had partaken in nor given much thought to since Ruby and Sapphire’s marriage 161 years before. It had been

145 years since Steven and Connie’s child Tara was born. Again, this was an event that sparked much perplexity and, in some cases, horror from many of the newer earth gems, but a few clear, calm explanations later, and the excitement had returned in full swing. Only days after Tara had been born, she had already made friends and allies across the galaxy.

Of course, all good things must come to an end.

It had been 140 years since Yellow Diamond was captured by a fairly immense rebel group. No traces of her gem were ever found, and whether she is shattered or not may never be brought to light. Consequently, the loss of Yellow caused Blue Diamond to succumb to severe depression, and two months later she shattered herself, unable to force herself to live in a world so cruel. Gems throughout the universe mourned the loss of the two diamonds, some more severely than others, but now there were much bigger problems to face.

It had been 137 years since the last of Yellow and Blue’s essence was used. Even with no war, domestic threats were still very evident. Gems by the names of Amber and Gypsum, sometimes even Pearls, were very fragile and often got into accidents; which led to a surprisingly fast depletion of what was left of the two diamonds. White was still around, yes, but she was never in one place for more than a day, using work as a distraction from the loss of her sister gems. Even then, two diamonds can only do so much for fragmented gems.

It had been 125 years since the last transmission had been heard from Lars and the Off Colors. The message itself had been almost impossible to make out, but with some profuse editing, it became apparent that it was the final message they would ever hear from the space-fairing force. For a few decades afterward, nothing particularly eventful occurred. Tara continued to grow while the gem population slowly shrank. That is, until _it_ started...

It had been 110 years since “The Deception'' began. It started with only a few gems; nothing happened to them physically, but their mental state collapsed. They could not say anything coherent and had only one goal in mind, the destruction of anything and everything around them. They were smart enough to deceive anyone not interacting with them and rational enough to summon their weapon, making them highly formidable enemies, and while a few of these new horrors or “deceptions'' would be easy to defeat, “few” doesn’t even begin to describe the exhaustive amount that had materialized in the past month. Pearl estimated about two million total gems would re-corrupt. Before the war, Homeworld’s militia was about twenty million gems, about half of which later converted to the crystal gems. However, many tend to underestimate the lethality of gems. Soldiers in the American Civil War 156 years ago suffered one loss for every one in four men. The gem war was about twice that much; half of all total gems either went missing or were shattered before the diamonds launched their corrupting light, which in turn brought the fatalities up to almost eighty percent of the original twenty million, the survivors being the four crystal gems on Earth, those who escaped to Homeworld, and the unknown survivor Lapis Lazuli.

It had been 100 years since the downfall of Steven and Connie. Fused, separated, and brutally murdered by the cold-blooded, ruthless, incessant, deceptive, monsters that plagued the world. The sentient crystal gems faltered and nearly collapsed when the news of the assassination reached them. Garnet was shocked, Amethyst was angry, Lapis was disheartened, Peridot was demented, Bismuth was pained, and Pearl—she was speechless. Nothing could begin to describe how hopeless and _dead_ she felt. She felt like a husk of a being that once was, her mind unable to feel any pain, just emptiness. It seemed that even during the course of battle, soundless, emotionless tears constantly tore down her face, etching a watery path down her cheeks, begging for a break from the perpetual fighting. If Pearl could’ve felt anything aside from the desolation of her mind, she would’ve been envious at the complex emotions of the others; while they would've given anything just to _make them stop_. All of them were being harassed by feelings of guilt, the same thought recurring in an endless loop of accusation, “ _Why weren’t we there?_ ” If it wasn’t for the war, many of them may have shattered themselves, willingly succumbing to the irreversible fate of hundreds of gems and humans alike. However, they knew they were needed on Earth, not in the unknown realm of disembodied spirits. If they couldn’t win the fight, the least they could do was try to hold on for each other, wishing that maybe one day they will have access to a safe haven to reside, heal, and overcome. Little did they know, this was only the start of a larger and much more painful story.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and Kudos are appreciated! <3
> 
> Haha  
> Help me I can't write fluff to save my life  
> Merry Christmas, Raven!
> 
> (wrote this listening to tragic events parts 1, 2, and 3 from Evelyn Evelyn)


End file.
